Stiletto Duece

[Tre4J]

I am the proud owner of Stiletto Duece. I spent many years bouncing around from what amp to buy but after the music shop loaned me the amp for a weekend, I decided this is the tone I want.

I had them order me in a new one, right out of the box and I just got it this week. I brought it to a friends to try it at loud jamming volumes and I'm finding the squealing really loud and I'm trying to figure out what is causing it to do that. I have the treble and presence below half, even the gain is about half on the tite gain mode. I have the loop switched on so I can use the solo function but my question is, if there are no effects in the loop, what is an ideal setting for the effects knob volume level?

I was using a Tokai LP with stock pick-ups. I know these don't handle gain the same as my charvel with dimarzios. This could be another reason.

My other question is what are the best ratios to set up the master volumes and the output at to get the most thickness and projection out of the amp?

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

How close are you to the amp? With a powerful amp like that, being too close will always cause feedback. This is normal.

As for the masters, I find that on the Stilettos and Rectifiers, the tone is best overall with the channel masters at about 11:30, and output to necessary volume.

 

[flieger67]

You might want to also check for a microphonic preamp tube.

 

[Charlie]

Try a different guitar. Your pickups might be microphonic. Most pickups are potted to prevent the windings from vibrating which results in a squeal.

If you have a microphonic preamp tube I'm pretty sure it will squeal without the instrument cable being plugged into the amp so you might want to try that as well... or just try a different preamp tube.

 

[Tre4J]

Thanks for the help guys.

I think the problem was too much volume. I was half drunk at my friends palce and we we're just cranking the knobs trying to get some instant gratification. It's a whole different monster than say a marshall which is more straightforeword when you set up the controls.

Finally by the end of the weekend I managed to dial in the lead tone I knew it was capable of. I had the effects loop in, even though I wasn't running any effects. The key I found was to keep the volume level on the loop on the minimum range to dial out the high output/harshness. This really smoothed out the tone. I was also using a maxon od-9 for more liquid tone. I absolutely loved the results. Very warm and clear...and BOOGIE! The other thing I found to help was having the master on the fluid drive channel about 9:00, and then the output at about 12:00, then the solo function on, with it set at about 3:00. Of course with spongy on. This tone, was happenin'!

So now all I gotta do, is figure out how I can rig up a heavy riffing tone on the channel 1 crunch, or see if there's someway I can coax heavy riffing tone simutaniously out of channel 2, and just kick on the solo function for leads. We will see...

I love the duece, absolutely unbelievable!

 

[Barry]

Thanks for the help guys.

I think the problem was too much volume. I was half drunk at my friends palce and we we're just cranking the knobs trying to get some instant gratification. It's a whole different monster than say a marshall which is more straightforeword when you set up the controls.

Finally by the end of the weekend I managed to dial in the lead tone I knew it was capable of. I had the effects loop in, even though I wasn't running any effects. The key I found was to keep the volume level on the loop on the minimum range to dial out the high output/harshness. This really smoothed out the tone. I was also using a maxon od-9 for more liquid tone. I absolutely loved the results. Very warm and clear...and BOOGIE! The other thing I found to help was having the master on the fluid drive channel about 9:00, and then the output at about 12:00, then the solo function on, with it set at about 3:00. Of course with spongy on. This tone, was happenin'!

So now all I gotta do, is figure out how I can rig up a heavy riffing tone on the channel 1 crunch, or see if there's someway I can coax heavy riffing tone simutaniously out of channel 2, and just kick on the solo function for leads. We will see...

I love the duece, absolutely unbelievable!

i had the same problem, especially with high output pups . You cant be very close to the amp without tweaking the master or output back a bit .